Brownsdale Fire Dept. awarded $1,500 grant
Austin
Daily Herald Published 10:17am Friday, December 23, 2011
The Brownsdale Fire Department got good news from the Minnesota
Department of
Natural Resources this holiday season.
The volunteer department was awarded a grant of $1,500
from the DNR Volunteer
Fire Assistance Grant program.
The grant program provides financial and technical assistance
to Minnesota
fire departments in cities or communities with populations under 10,000. The
objective of the grant program is to protect property and lives in rural areas
throughout Minnesota. The grants are made on a 50:50 match basis.
“Priority is given to fire departments that have
the greatest need,”
according to Tom Romaine, DNR fire supervisor south. “Additional considerations
include the type of project, fire runs and number of previous years funded.”
Romaine added that $441,874 in matching grants are being
awarded to 250 fire
departments across the state for 2012.
Brownsdale Volunteer Fire Department
Awarded
2009 AFG Grant
October 16, 2010
The Brownsdale Volunteer Fire Department was recently informed by the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that it was a recipient of a 2009 Assistance to Firefighters Grant (AFG) Award for $54,663.
The monies received from the grant will be used to purchase new radio equipment, including a Repeater Station, 8 mobile two
way radios and 18 hand held two way radios. This equipment was desperately needed to facilitate communications between our
base location and our fire fighters, our firefighters on location, and county dispatch and our firefighters. This new system
will also improve our communication within neighboring fire protection jurisdictions and state, local and county law enforcement
agencies.
Chief David Pike stated, "we are very grateful to FEMA and the AFG program
for funding these critical needs of our department that will greatly improve the safety and communications for our firefighters.
We are very fortunate to be awarded AFG Funds for the second time in the past six years." As part of this award in the
next several months we will need to raise $2,876.00 which is our share of the total cost of the project. We hope to have this
new radio system fully functional within the next few months.
Even though Brownsdale Fire has one of the lower operating budgets in Mower
County, it is one of only 30 fire departments in Minnesota who is privately owned and operated, contracted to municipalities
and townships for fire protection services. Chief Pike added, "Our resident's expectations of us are no differet than
the expectations of residents from larger communities that are around us. The fact that our revenues are modest, means only
that we just have to work a little harder in our fund raising efforts and grant applications to make sure we have the tools
to get the job done when the pager goes off. Our department is grateful to FEMA for the 2009 AFG Award."
